Transcript Allison Murray Whittington

Strike out on fantastic journeys through imagination!
Search for treasure and excitement! Inked with dip pens
and illuminated with watercolor, each of these maps is a
wonderful navigation tool for explorers, pirates,
storytellers, map lovers, and adventurers of all ages. Strike
out on fantastic journeys through imagination! Search for
treasure and excitement! Inked with dip pens and
illuminated with watercolor, each of these maps is a
wonderful navigation tool for explorers, pirates,
storytellers, map lovers, and adventurers of all ages.
Alison Murray Whittington
Chief Mapmaker
Description
The Kingdom of Imagination is vast, but it has a little spur nestled between the Land of
Fairies, the Kingdom of Wonder and the Kingdom of a Hundred Stories; the residents
here enjoy visits with their neighbors, walks through the (very un-scary) Whispering
Woods, soaks in Legend Lake and jaunts to the Hills of Mystery (the border between this
small province and the rest of the kingdom). It might seem like a sleepy little province,
but it is filled with joy and life. A lovely place for an oh-so-relaxing vacation.
Under the grand title of Chief Mapmaker, Alison Murray Whittington charts magical and
fantastic lands for her organization: The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical
Exploration & Cartography. Each of her hand-inked and painted maps is an inspiration
for endless tales of heroes and quests, romance and adventure, mystery and wonder.
Alison Murray Whittington, Chief
Mapmaker
• Bio: The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration &
Cartography
• I, Alison Whittington, am an artist and writer currently living in the
Tidewater area of Virginia, but am originally from the west coast California and Nevada - and count Philadelphia as my second home. I've
lived in 3 countries, 4 states, 13 cities, and 25 dwellings. I am crazy about
vivid colors, incredible adventures, intriguing stories and magical settings.
I'm not an expert on ships, or even maps, I just pretend I am one. One of
my many dreams is to build my own sailboat or ship and sail around the
world. I don't know how to sail yet, but I'll learn. For the short-term, I am
an armchair sailor.
I hope to soon have a web site at www.interimaginational.com. In the
meantime, you can also visit me online at
http://paintandink.blogspot.com.
• http://www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php?featured_user_id=46726
THE MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF FROLICKING ALISON FAYE THE
REVEL ROUSER
•
Under the grand title of Chief Mapmaker, Alison Murray Whittington charts magical and
fantastic lands for her organization: The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical
Exploration & Cartography. Each of her hand-inked and painted maps is an inspiration for
endless tales of heroes and quests, romance and adventure, mystery and wonder. I was truly
delighted when she agreed to grant me an interview from her home in Chesapeake, Virginia.
First things first, I must know, what were your most beloved
storybooks or tales growing up?
•
I can only begin to scratch the surface here. I loved so many
books and tales when I was growing up, and still do: they
include a lot of classics, like Where the Wild Things Are,
Paddington Bear, Pippi Longstocking, The Pop-Up Book of
Gnomes (I was an adult before I realized the original book,
Gnomes, even existed), and A Book of Fairy Tales, illustrated
by the Grahame Johnstone sisters (still one of my most
treasured books). I also loved Anne of Green Gables, A
Wrinkle in Time, The Ordinary Princess, and both The Little
Princess and The Little Prince. And my dad was a great
storyteller, too. I’m very lucky that my childhood was packed
to the brim with story and imagination.
You have charted such wonderful lands. If you had the
opportunity to choose one to visit, which would be at the top
of your list?
• That is such an awesome question – no one has ever asked
me that. I love all of the places I’ve charted, without question,
but if I could pick only one place to visit, it would
be Marvelopolis and vicinity. I love the mix of activities and
elements… there’s a bit of adventure (who wouldn’t want to
ride a Pegasus?), a bit of intrigue (Smuggler’s Inn), ocean,
mountains, forest… it’s got a little bit of everything, really.
Plus, it has my favorite element: the promise of more
adventures to be had off the edges of the paper, just beyond
the map’s boundaries.
Was the first map that you created of a real or imaginary place?
Was it for you or a project for something else?
• I must have made maps as a student, but really, this is a very new
occupation for me. And it sprung up almost fully-formed, out of the blue,
or so it seemed. I can look back at my whole life, and see how it has led
me to this life as a mapmaker, but at the time, it felt like it just came out of
nowhere.
• One day, I just had a hankering to make a map… I even knew that I wanted
to use dip pens and India ink, and hunted them down and bought them
before I ever made the first map. I remember buying those supplies very
clearly, and I know for sure the first map was a treasure map, but I just
don’t remember which one it was. It’s not one of the maps in my Etsy
shop, though. It’s definitely in the back of the file cabinet in my “oops”
folder. It took some practice before I was ready to start sharing my maps
with the world. You can read about that here, if you like.
If you were a pirate, what name would you sail under?
• Ooooooh…. I get so excited just thinking about pirating! But
not the evil kind. I’d be a pirate in my own way, which
wouldn’t be robbing and plundering, but wreaking havoc in
fun, wacky ways: like sneaking into a town in the middle of
the night with my crew to start a big carnival Or instead of
stealing treasure, burying a chest of chocolate coins and
tacking a map to someone’s door in the middle of the night.
Or firing cannonballs of confetti at another ship! Now,
wouldn’t that be marvelous?
• So I would need a good name to be that kind of pirate. Like
Alison the Revelrouser or Frolicking Alison Faye. Wow, or
Frolicking Alison Faye the Revelrouser. I really like that word,
revelrouser. I think I will have to use it a lot.